"It takes a village to raise a child"

[Prometheus]

Is this a true statement?

Yes it is.

BUT, it is NOT an exhortation to the village that they should be actively raising the children of the "village." THAT is the job of the parents. However, everyone is affected by the environment that they grow up in. That's why there are stereotypes about people who "grew up on the mean streets of insert city name here," or whatever the opposite is for the "pussy" neighborhoods in your area where the kids drink "cocoa" instead of "hot chocolate."

Unfortunately, too many on the left have taken this statement as an exhortation AND as a mission. They believe that it IS their job to inculcate your child with their morals and beliefs... which generally are just anything that is oppositional to the "right" who have used their villages to raise kids for centuries.

Really the only difference is that far too many "leftist" parents are actually allowing this to go on without their participation in the process. They have abdicated their responsibilities and have lost any semblance of control over their children. In turn, the children have little or no sense of personal responsibility as there is always someone in the village to pick up the slack for them rather than simply guide them.

I think that the older of us can remember a time when we knew everyone in the neighborhood and we knew that the adults had permission to yell at us if we fucked up. On the up-side, our parents also knew that the other parents in the neighborhood were keeping a bit of an eye on us when our playing took us near their houses and our parents reciprocated by keeping an out when their kids played near our house.

These bonds of community seem to have largely gone the way of the dodo as no one wants the responsibility yet everyone is expected to take it whether they want it or not. And the ones who seem active to take responsibility aren't really members of the local community but interlopers... carpetbaggers, if you will.

It DOES "take a village," but the villager all need to be on the same page. That's why liberal carpetbaggers find so much resistance in "villages" where everyone is actively participating in the process: they are upsetting the natural order (even if their cause is just) but they are not doing it by becoming part of the village itself before putting forth their ideas.

Anyone who has taken a class in salesmanship knows that you have to build a relationship before you can make a sale.

/Saturday Morning Ramble